Really struggling overeating at night

Do you have nighttime habits, like watching TV, that make mindlessly eating an easier habit? Can you find something else to do with your hands?

Like the poster above, I usually save the majority of my calories for later in the day. I love sweets, too, so I eat piles of fruit.

I have a light snack at 3 or 4 (hard boiled egg for example) dinner around 6 (no more than 400 calories) and a snack before bed. Rice cake, almond butter, banana, cinnamon and a glass of almond milk. If I don’t eat my snack I wake up in the middle of the night hungry and can’t sleep. But it’s filling enough that I don’t need to eat after that. But it’s a treat and I enjoy it. Naturally sweet, fat helps me too! When I was eating like halo top or popcorn with some chocolate chips for dessert it wasn’t filling me up, so I ended up eating more after.

Personally I’ve cut out white flour and processed snack foods (cereal, cake, cookies) because I never was satisfied with just one. I wanted the whole tray or whole box. It’s easier for me to not include them in any amount in my diet. I would spend all day trying to figure out how I could eat them, so i would skip dinner, or something unhealthy like that, just to eat snack foods later. It was unhealthy and mentally exhausting.

I find I am MUCH better off eating dinner sooner. Basically, I walk in the door from work and either eat or get dinner going if I'm cooking that night. I can't wait too long to eat or I will overeat. A snack doesn't seem to cut it for me, more of a volume eater type.

Then, I try to avoid buying or keeping "snack" foods around the house, especially if it's something I struggle to control my portions with (for example, for me, chips and salsa is a big one that I will overeat). If I have been craving something like that, I will basically plan it as a big meal one day, and let myself "binge" on it, but I plan accordingly. This isn't frequent (once every few months), so I'm not worried about it from a health perspective.

Mind you, most things I can control my portions on pretty well, but that one is definitely a problem area, so I just don't keep it around the house. Ice cream, on the other hand, a small amount I find very satisfying, and keeping it around is actually good as once I've eaten dinner, if I want a little, I can have some and I won't feel the need to eat the whole container lol.

Perhaps you can find some alternatives that will help satisfy your cravings while finding them more "controllable?" Perhaps something "sweet" that you're not very fond of (example, I have some "super sour" sweet tarts in my house - they give me something sweet, but I really don't want more than a few in any one sitting)? Changing around meal times to fit with what your body wants?

When you say "I can be good for 3 to 4 days but then totally blow all my good efforts for another 3 to 4 days" do you mean you deny your sweet tooth cravings but after 3 or 4 days of depriving yourself your resolve runs out and you lose control?

I only ask because that exactly what I've done in the past. I felt I needed to 'cut out' all the 'bad' foods that I really enjoyed. This would work for a few days or sometimes a bit longer but eventually the depriving and denying got to be too much and I'd crack. This would lead to me going overboard. Since I'd given in to temptation, I tended to want to make the most of it while it lasted before I'd have to go back to missing out.

The approach that worked for me to deal with this is to not cut things I like/craved out entirely. Instead I found ways to enjoy them. This is usually achieved by planning them within my calorie target for the day or the week. Sometimes it was just a matter of accepting that if I wanted to have a small sweet treat that it might have a very tiny impact on my weight loss progress that week and being OK with that.

The point was as soon as I stopped making treat forbidden they lost much of their allure, and as soon as I decided to incorporate them into my calorie target where I could I no longer felt the need to over-indulge as I never felt like I was being or going to be deprived of them.

I used to be like you at night. I also ate dinner around 8pm on a regular basis. I loved sweet desserts of any kind, even a candybar was dessert to me. And baked goods like cookies or pie, I would definitely over eat.

Counting and logging calories with MFP got me accountable. I started planning calories per meal to stay satiated through the day. Then my son moved back in for a while and he insisted on eating around 5pm (one of his weight strategies) so I complied. That was one good move for me for sure!

I purposely stopped buying 'sweets' to keep on hand and replaced that with fresh fruit, which was satisfying for me. I slowly lost the urge to have something sweet at night! Then I slowly lost the habit of eating after dinner too!

I've been doing this since Oct. 2018 and am getting close to my goal weight.

The adjustment to a new eating style took time and patience, but now it's paying off. Good luck to you!

If you're sure you are eating enough calories and a reasonably balanced diet, night time eating is often just a deeply ingrained habit (I speak from experience ). The best way to break a bad habit is replace it with a better one. Brainstorm some quick easy things you can do (other than eat) when the mood strikes - like play a game on your phone, a cat videos YT channel, a quick walk, a crossword, etc. Leave a reminder of that new response somewhere you will typically see it when the mood strikes.

I also find keeping low/no cal beverages nearby all evening really helps, plus brushing my teeth.

Also when you do snack, weigh out the portion, log it, and put the package away FIRST, then go back to your couch or wherever and eat it. Another habit

If you're a reader, the Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg is both a fun read and really enlightening.